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Professional Services Procurement Spend

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Dear Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council,

I am writing to ask that you please provide me with the spend for your Professional Services procurement at the Authority, by which I mean the procurement of projects and consultancy through Statement of Work excluding temporary agency staff.

• What have you spent on Professional Services over the last 12 months?
• What did the authority spend on professional Services Between April 2019 and March 2020?
• Between April 2019 and March 2020, which categories had the highest level of spend throughout that period?
• Has the authority planned any large construction-based projects over the next two years?
• If you have got construction projects planned, please could you provide project details, budget and timeframes?
• What is the Councils current process to engage with professional service providers? Please could you provide details of the process and name third parties if they are being used.

Yours faithfully,

Robert Taylor

FOI Officer, Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council

Good morning Mr Taylor,

Thank you for your request for information (FOI 5783648) submitted under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 which has been given the above-mentioned reference number. Please quote this in any correspondence regarding your request.

Stockport Council will respond to your request within 20 working days from the date of receipt. If there will be a charge for disbursements e.g. photocopying in order to provide the information, we will inform you as soon as possible to see if you wish to proceed; however, such charges are usually waived if they amount to less than £10.

Kindest regards,

Daniel Adshead
Information Governance Apprentice
I: Stockport Council | 1st Floor South Stopford House | Stockport | SK1 3XE
:
: [email address]
d:http://www.stockport.gov.uk
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FOI Officer, Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council

Dear Mr Taylor,

 

I am contacting you regarding your information request logged under the
above reference number.

 

After referring your request to the relevant service area, we have been
asked to seek clarification from you as specified below. Please note that
it is only this part of your request which has been queried. We have been
informed that the search for information to answer the other parts can be
undertaken. We will however issue further requests for clarification if
necessary.

 

Could you clarify this part of your request?:

 

•            Has the authority planned any large construction-based
projects over the next two years?

 

If possible, clarifying points such as:

 

Your definition of a large project?

Do you only wish to know which projects the Council has scheduled to
begin?

 

In accordance with Section 2.8 of the Section 45 FOI Code of Practice, if
you are able to provide clarification for this part of your request, the
20 working day time limit for our response will begin from the date upon
which we receive clarification, however if no response is received within
2 months of our request, we will consider your request closed.

 

I look forward to hearing back from you in due course so that we can fully
complete your request.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Robert McCarten

CSS Officer – Information Governance

1^st Floor South, Stopford House

Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council, SK1 3XE

Tel: 0161 474 3319

[mobile number]

 

 

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Dear Robert,

Thank you for your reply,

By Professional Services I mean procurement of projects and consultancy through Statement of Work that is outside IR35, but excluding temporary agency staff.
The value of any large projects that are due to commence that exceed 10m within all categories, for example housing, ICT, social care and education.

Please let me know if you need any further information

Yours sincerely,

Robert Taylor

FOI Officer, Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council

Dear Mr Taylor,

 

Thank you very much for your clarification. We will aim to provide a final
response to you by no later than 20 working days after the date we
received this clarification.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Robert McCarten

CSS Officer – Information Governance

1^st Floor South, Stopford House

Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council, SK1 3XE

Tel: 0161 474 3319

[mobile number]

 

 

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FOI Officer, Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council

Dear Mr Taylor,

 

I am contacting you about your information request which we logged under
the above reference number.

 

Your request has been forwarded to the relevant service areas. Your
request is being processed, however I regret to inform you we will not be
able to provide a full response within the targeted 20 working days.

 

I would like to take this opportunity to apologise on behalf of Stockport
Council for this delay and for any inconvenience this may cause.

 

We will update you next week and endeavour to provide a full response to
you as soon as possible.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Robert McCarten

CSS Officer – Information Governance

1^st Floor South, Stopford House

Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council, SK1 3XE

Tel: 0161 474 3319

 

 

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FOI Officer, Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council

Dear Mr
Taylor,                                                                                                                                                                

 

Please consider this as our formal response to your information request
which was logged under the above reference number and has been treated as
a request made under the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act 2000.

 

Your request has been forwarded to Council service areas and the Council’s
housing management organisation “Stockport Homes.”

 

 

 

•            What have you spent on Professional Services over the last 12
months?

 

Highways & Transport (Revenue 161C & 161D & Capital)

£1,131,939.40

 

Place Revenue

£1,012,406.05

 

 

Stockport Homes

 

[1]SHG’s publication data is here

 

 

 

•            What did the authority spend on professional Services Between
April 2019 and March 2020?

 

Place Revenue

£1,092,041.77

 

Highways & Transport (Revenue 161C & 161D & Capital)

1 April 2019 – 31 March 2020       £ 1,173,738.06

 

121 CSS Cash Limit £2,476,675
151 People Cash Limit £592,688
19 Non-General Fund Items £14,104
132 CSS Non-Cash Limit £54,789

 

ASC Consultancy                                              £ 445,310.14

CSS Consultancy                                               £ 397,729.87

 

 

Stockport Homes

 

[2]SHG’s publication data is here

 

 

•            Between April 2019 and March 2020, which categories had the
highest level of spend throughout that period?

 

See provided data

 

 

Stockport Homes

 

[3]SHG’s publication data is here

 

 

•            Has the authority planned any large construction-based
projects over the next two years?

 

Education

The re-location/expansion of Lisburne Special school.

 

 

Stockport Homes

 

Yes, see below for details.

 

 

•            If you have got construction projects planned, please could
you provide project details, budget and timeframes?

 

Education (Lisburne School)

o £15m project
o Open September 2022

 

 

Stockport Homes Group:

St. Thomas Development planned over the next two years, currently in
development.

 

We can confirm the budget data is held, however this information is exempt
from disclosure under section 43(2) (Commercial interests) of the Freedom
of Information Act 2000. This legal provision we are referencing goes as
follows:

 

(2) Information is exempt information if its disclosure under this Act
would, or would be likely to, prejudice the commercial interests of any
person (including the public authority holding it).

 

Prejudice

 

At the time of receipt of your request, Stockport Homes was soon to tender
for this development. Releasing Stockport Homes’ budget data to the public
domain at this stage in the development would mean that they would be
likely to expose themselves to the risk of having to pay more than they
would expect for the related services. It is in Stockport Homes’
legitimate commercial interests to maintain particular budgets and apply
them to obtain the best possible services it can do. Releasing this
information would be an act which would prejudice their commercial
position in this sense.

 

Public interest

 

Public interest factors in favour of disclosure:

 

o Releasing the information would comply with Stockport Council’s and
Stockport Homes’ commitment to transparency, and as such, disclosure
would maintain the precedent of information sharing between public
authorities and the public.

 

Public interest factors in favour of maintaining the exemption:

 

o Withholding the information would ensure that Stockport Homes’
commercial interests are protected and prevent the risk of causing
undue commercial disadvantage regarding this development and prevent
the risk of harming prospects for future developments in the public
domain which are carried out for the benefit of the borough and
beyond.

 

Conclusion

 

We consider that certain details regarding the development in this case
requires more protection. It is in the public interest to have an insight
into projects and developments carried out by public authorities. We
consider that this need has been satisfied with the information made
available so far, but we consider that the requested financial details
hold a vital function for Stockport Homes insofar that they are required
to be used where necessary for commercial interests and engagement to
fulfil important developments consequential on the public it serves. As
such, releasing this information in response to your request carries a
risk of disadvantaging Stockport Homes’ commercial position which will be
consequential om its public services.  

We therefore conclude that disclosure would be prejudicial to these ends,
and we will maintain the exemption and not disclose the information.

 

•            What is the Councils current process to engage with
professional service providers? Please could you provide details of the
process and name third parties if they are being used.

 

 1. Risk Based sourcing up to the OJEU limit (£189k) – Based on risk this
could be a quick quote or a full open advertised tender
 2. Use an external compliant framework to run a mini competition process
or direct award – Examples of these are Northwest Construction Hub,
ESPO, YPO, CCS.
 3. Use an internal STAR framework to run a mini competition or direct
award

 

AGMA Civil & Structural Professional Services Framework established in
2018, [4]OJEU Contract Award Notice 2018/S 241-550925 contains all the
required details and is publicly available.

 

 

Stockport Homes

 

SHG procures in line with our Contract Procedure Rules:

o Under £50,000 is a three quotes process
o Over £50,00 is a competitive tender

All tenders are advertised / run through the Pro Contract portal.

We currently have one live quote on the portal (due to value we selected 5
suppliers to quote) and procured Alysium in 2019 through a competitive
tender (they have recently changed their name to One Consulting).

 

 

Documents held by Stockport Council may be subject to the Re-Use of Public
Sector Information Regulations 2015. If you receive or identify a Council
document which is subject to them Regulations, and you wish to use that
document for a purpose which is different to its original purpose, please
make a request which specifies the document and describes your purpose for
using the document and we will aim to respond to that request by no later
than 20 working days.

 

You can find more about FOI requests via the following link:

[5]https://www.stockport.gov.uk/freedom-of-...

 

If you have any queries or wish to request an internal review, please
contact [6][email address] or call 0161 474 4299 and quote
your reference number. Please note that internal review requests must be
submitted within 40 working days of the date of response to an information
request.

 

Complaints or queries can be lodged with the Information Commissioner’s
Office via the following contact points:

 

Information Commissioner’s Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

 

[7]www.ico.gov.uk

 

0303 123 1113

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Robert McCarten

CSS Officer – Information Governance

1^st Floor South, Stopford House

Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council, SK1 3XE

Tel: 0161 474 3319

 

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References

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4. https://ted.europa.eu/udl?uri=TED:NOTICE...
5. https://www.stockport.gov.uk/freedom-of-...
6. mailto:[email address]
7. http://www.ico.gov.uk/
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We don't know whether the most recent response to this request contains information or not – if you are Robert Taylor please sign in and let everyone know.